No Regrets
by Kyoku.x
Summary: Kurenai, do you ever...regret...?” “No, Kakashi, I’ve never regretted my relationship with him at all.” A KakaSaku oneshot.


**Title:** No Regrets  
**Summary:** "Kurenai, do you ever…regret…?" "No, Kakashi, I've never regretted my relationship with him at all." A Kakashi/Sakura oneshot.  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto.

A/N: This started out as a drabble and just…grew from there, but it's still fairly short. I hope you'll enjoy it all the same! xD

**-!-!-**

When Kakashi woke up and heard Gai's deep, resonating snores he sighed inwardly—he didn't like taking the middle watch. He extracted himself from his bedroll and moved to the tree Kurenai was stationed in. Yawning, he looked up when she didn't jump down immediately at his obvious indication that her watch was over. She had a small rectangle of well worn paper in her hands, her thumb stroking over the front of it fondly. When Kakashi cleared his throat, she jumped from the tree without looking at him. Slowly and with great care she tucked the paper into her kunai holster, but not before Kakashi caught a glimpse of the photograph. It had been years, and although he was—like any competent shinobi—outwardly immune to the emotional effects of friends' deaths, the sight still made his insides twinge; he could only imagine what it did to her.

They both knew he had seen it, but Kurenai only glanced up at him, gave him the smallest of smiles, and began towards the smokeless embers of their camp's dying fire.

Kakashi didn't know if it was instinct or recklessness or something else entirely, but something grabbed him and made his vocal chords work against whatever tact he may have possessed, "Kurenai, do you ever…regret…?"

She stopped, turned towards him and their eyes met. While his face remained impassive Kakashi immediately felt as though he should retract his half-unspoken question or apologize, but Kurenai looked more empathetic than upset or angry.

"No, Kakashi, I've never regretted my relationship with him at all."

"Not even…"

"Asuma and I both knew the risks. I've never regretted it."

He turned away from her and expected that she had returned to camp. This was why he didn't like taking the middle watch: it meant wakeless hours—without the interruptions of daylight—with very little else to do but think about the dreams that had plagued him for longer than he wanted to acknowledge: _those_ dreams that made him do things that contested all reason and common sense, like ask prying questions about his teammates' personal lives.

His books had gone unopened for weeks—he, thinking that _they_ might be the cause of his affliction—but the dreams were still becoming more and more frequent, and increasingly realistic. Whenever he was home a disturbing sense of déjà vu suffocated him, as he imagined (or _told_ himself he imagined) parallels between his dreams and _any_ conversations or training sessions or passing glances he and the subject of his dreams might share. Whenever he was away from Konoha for extended periods of time the dreams only became more torturous, because then dawn never promised the real-life interactions village-life promised, and without those fleeting moments or long, sunny afternoons, there was _nothing_ to sedate his mental infection. Just this one week mission had put him through—

"I'm sure Sakura wouldn't regret it either."

—He could have sworn she'd left him. Kakashi glanced over his shoulder and realized that Kurenai hadn't moved an inch.

"Love is love, Kakashi," she gave him a small, compassionate smile and left.

Staring after her, mouth slightly agape, Kakashi almost called her back, to ask how she had known exactly why he had asked his question. Instead, he silently jumped into the treetops above him and took off. He knew he couldn't bear a stationary watch that night.

But his pace, however fast, did not stop his mind from racing faster.

* * *

"Ah, a'least it was only one week's worth," Genma smirked at the rest of his teammates as they passed through the entrance gate into Konoha. "Kakashi, you wanna take the report in? Thanks." With that Genma took off for the nearest bar. 

Gai was babbling at him, but Kakashi took no notice. His attention was solely focused on the shock of pale pink that was bobbing into a bakery just down the street. Kurenai said something to Gai about Lee that had the man running down the main boulevard. She didn't say anything to Kakashi, only fixed him with a significantly expectant look and left towards her home and son. Kakashi almost laughed as he set off —Kurenai had obviously noticed her, just as he had—and ducked into the bakery quickly when he came to it.

The mission report could wait.


End file.
